The numbers were up considerably at this years’ “Pick up and Walk” community clean up event in Steinbach this past Saturday, both in the number of participants and in the amount of garbage picked up. Over 1200 volunteers signed up to participate in the event, up from 1000 several years ago, and 10.38 tons of garbage was collected, up from 8 ½ tons the previous year. 17 churches were involved in motivating their congregants to clean up the streets, parks, side roads, open areas, ditches, boulevards, and culverts all over the city and on the highways coming into the city as well.
The event was originally scheduled for April 26 but with the amount of snowfall this winter the date was moved up a week to allow more time for the snow to melt. Organizer Grace Hiebert explains, “with the huge amount of snow still on the ground in mid-March, the Pick up and Walk Leadership team, along with the city, decided to change the date early on, before the pastors and church leaders started promoting in their churches. We are really glad that we changed the date because the snow did melt and a record number of people cleaned up the city.” Because of the increase in numbers, the city was able to add several new routes to the event. One of these new routes included Hwy 52 from Bushfarm Rd all the way to Mitchell which was cleared of all the garbage in all three ditches with 50 of the volunteers working in that area. The other two routes added were Hwy 12 North from Clearspring Road to Giroux Rd, and Hwy 52 east from Hirschfeld Road to Ekron-Oswald Road.
The churches of Steinbach showed solidarity in supporting the event together. Michael Zwaagstra, event coordinator from Evangelical Fellowship Church shared, “Our church looks forward to participating in this event every year. It’s a great way to give back to our city and we appreciate being able to work in partnership with the other churches in this region. Pick Up and Walk gives all of us an opportunity to serve our community in a very practical and meaningful way.” Mayor Chris Goertzen attended this years’ event and also participated in the clean up. He expressed his appreciation, “On behalf of City Council, I would sincerely like to thank everyone who participated in this year’s Pick Up and Walk event. I would also like to thank the 17 churches who put their faith in action by organizing this event. It’s always great to see so many people pull together to support our community.”
A significant amount of support also came from local businesses. Hiebert explains, “So many businesses really stepped up to the plate this year, more than in years past, to show their support both financially and through the donation of product to help provide a complimentary lunch to the 1200 participants.” These businesses include: Bakeworld, Canadian Tire, Century 21, Diamond Construction, Earls Meats, Funk’s Toyota, GTP Accounting, Harvest Insurance, Horizon Livestock, Lacocina, Lions Club, Penner Trailers, Raintree Financial, Safeway, Sobeys, Ste. Anne Co-op, Steinbach Credit Union, Steinbach Dodge, Steinbach Flooring, Superstore, Threeway Builders, Tim Hortons, Valeant Pharmaceuticals.
Organizers of the event have now officially changed the date to be held permanently on the 1st Saturday in May. Next years’ event will take place on Saturday May 2, 2015.
